Southland Conference recap 3/19/2010

Cass Hargis went 3-for-5, driving in the eventual go-ahead run in a three-run fifth inning, and Tyler Watkins fanned seven batters in 5.2 innings as No. 17 Southeastern Louisiana held off a ninth inning rally by McNeese State to claim a 6-5 victory Friday night at Cowboy Diamond.
Freshman Brock Hebert went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs as Southeastern (17-1, 4-0 SLC) scored six unanswered runs after trailing 2-0 after three innings. Southeastern (No. 17 Collegiate Baseball; No. 30 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) scored a run in the fourth inning on a solo home run by Josh Cryer before taking the lead for good in the fifth.

Joe Sparacino led off the inning with a double before scoring two batters later on a single by Hebert. Hargis gave Southeastern a 3-2 lead when he doubled to left-center field off MSU starter Dustin Lloyd (0-4) that scored Hebert and Justin Boudreaux extended his hitting streak to 10 games when he doubled off Lloyd to drive in Hargis.

Hebert gave Southeastern a 6-2 lead in the ninth with a bloop single over the head of shortstop Matt Fontenot that scored Chris Franklin and Philip Freeman. FULL STORY

Central Arkansas 4 Lamar 3

A solid pitching performance from senior Michael Wild and a pair of RBI’s from sophomore Blake Roberts gave the University of Central Arkansas Bears their first Southland Conference victory of the season, 4-3 over Lamar on Friday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

Wild (2-2) went the distance for the second consecutive start, striking out four and walking none. He has now pitched 18 consecutive innings without a walk. UCA (6-11, 1-3) rallied from a 3-1 deficit, scoring the go-ahead run on a double steal in the eighth inning.

“Just a tremendous effort from Wild,’ said UCA head coach Doug Clark. “That’s what your bell cow, your ace is supposed to do, get you innings and keep you in a close game. Nice job by Michael.’

After UCA left the bases loaded without scoring in the top of the third inning, the Cardinals (14-5, 1-3) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom on a sacrifice fly by Quentin Luquette. UCA answered quickly in the top of the fourth when Roberts reached on a fielder’s choice, allowing Clay Washington to score to tie it at 1-1. FULL STORY

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 14 Nicholls State 3

The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team pounded out 17 hits including three home runs as it stormed past Nicholls 14-3 in seven innings in the first game of a three-game Southland Conference series at Chapman Field on Friday.

With the run-rule victory, A&M-Corpus Christi improved 9-8 overall and evened its Southland mark at 2-2. Nicholls dropped to 11-6 overall and 2-2 in the SLC. It was the first time since the 2007 season that the Islanders run-ruled an opponent in Southland action. They did it three times that season including back-to-back games against Nicholls the last time they accomplished the feat.

“We did everything well today,” said Islander head coach Scott Malone. “I am really pleased considering how disappointed we were after Wednesday’s loss to Houston Baptist. The reason we were so upset as coaches is we think we can be a really good team and we showed that today.

“Most importantly, we did that against a team that is really good. Nicholls was 2-0 after two games with Lamar last weekend.”

Nicholls jumped out to a pair of early leads versus the Islanders. A&M-Corpus Christi responded quickly each time.

The Colonels scored an unearned run in the first off Roy Ferdin, but the Islanders tallied a pair of two-out runs. After Weston Montgomery singled, Trey Hernandez drove him in with a double. Hernandez crossed the plate on a single to right by Chris Vergne. FULL STORY

Northwestern State 4 Stephen F. Austin 2

Luke Irvine picked up his third straight victory and Chad Sheppard tied the Northwestern State career record in saves with his 16th – sixth of the season and the Demons defeated Stephen F. Austin 4-2 in Southland Conference baseball action on Friday.

The win moved the Demons to 14-3 on the season and 3-1 in conference play. It’s the 14th win in the last 15 games for the Demons. SFA fell to 12-5 overall as it drops its first league game of the season and dropped to 3-1.

“Getting the first win of a series is pretty important,” said Demon head coach J.P. Davis. “SFA is a good ball club and they came in playing well. It was a well played game between both of us.”

The series continues at 2 on Saturday with Heath Hennigan expected to get the start on the bump but a weather forecast that’s calling for heavy rains could alter the starting time or push the game back to Sunday.

Irvine (3-0), the reigning SLC and Louisiana Pitcher of the Week, remained perfect on the year after he hurled six innings and gave up just one run, none earned, on four hits with eight strikeouts. He saw his consecutive scoreless inning streak come to an end at 17 straight when SFA scored on a pass ball with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning to wreck the shutout. FULL STORY

Texas State 12 Sam Houston State 5

Carson Smith highlighted his second-career win by tossing six scoreless innings in a 7 2/3 effort and Tyler Sibley went 3-for-5 at the plate, scoring three runs, both aiding the Texas State Bobcats all-around effort over Sam Houston State Friday night to claim a 12-5 win over the foe at Don Sanders Stadium.

The Bobcats take game one in the Southland Conference series and improve to 3-1 in league play and 10-6 overall. The Bearkats fall to 1-3 and 5-12, respectively.

Tomorrow’s game scheduled for 2 p.m. has been postponed due to heavy rain expected in the area. The teams will play a doubleheader Sunday beginning at noon.

“Tonight I watched this team come together for a complete game,” said head coach Ty Harrington. “We used our momentum to take a big jump early and took their momentum away when they showed spurts of big moments.”

“It is very hard to win on the road against anyone, but Sam Houston makes it tougher,” added Harrington. “I’m very proud of the team for competing nine innings and excited to see what happens on Sunday.”

Sibley opened the gates in Texas State’s fifth-straight victory with a base hit to left field and Bret Atwood followed with a deep single to the opposite field to shift the sophomore to third base. In the next at-bat, Kyle Livingstone plated Sibley with a sacrifice fly and Kyle Kubitza came behind to push Atwood home with a single through the right side for a 2-0 lead. FULL STORY

UTSA 8 UT Arlington 2

Sophomore left-hander Casey Selsor tossed the first complete game of his career and he benefited from three home runs, as UTSA picked up an 8-2 victory against UT Arlington on Friday night at Roadrunner Field.

The Birds won their first Southland Conference game in four tries this season and improved to 9-7 overall.

Selsor (3-1), who retired nine of the final 11 hitters he faced, gave up two runs (one earned) on just six hits and a pair of walks, while striking out four in the 134-pitch outing (83 strikes). He was aided by home runs from sophomore Jason Mohn, freshman Ryan Dalton and senior Jeff Taliaferro.

“We played good in all three phases of the game tonight,” Selsor said after the victory. “For the most part, everything was working for me. I struggled a little with my fastball in the middle innings, but after that, I really was able to get in a rhythm. It was huge to get our first conference win and now we have a chance to win a series tomorrow.”

“Casey threw an outstanding game,” head coach Sherman Corbett said. “He began to get really strong in the seventh inning. I asked him before the ninth how he felt and he told me he was ready to finish it up. Even though we committed three errors, we made some plays behind him when we need to. I also thought the hitters did a good job of working their at-bats against an extremely good pitcher.” FULL STORY

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